Primary News
Joshua Aghion – Co-ordinator of Innovation (K-6)
Keeping Safe Online
Research from the eSafety commission completed in 2020 found that approximately 30 percent of young people are contacted by strangers online. Anecdotally, this seems accurate for students at Emanuel School in as early as Year 3. Each term, in ICT and general class lessons, teachers at Emanuel work on building online safety skills. In the Early Years, we look at being safe, respectful and responsible when engaging in online behaviour, monitoring how long we are on devices and checking how we are feeling. In the Upper Primary years, we spend many lessons exploring the concepts of talking to strangers online, being exposed to unwanted material and what to do if something goes wrong.
One aspect of the teaching programs at Emanuel is giving students an opportunity to share their experiences and hearing their voice. A common theme in these lessons is that the experiences of the students are relatively similar. Many of our students are being contacted on their phones, whilst playing games like Minecraft or Roblox or on their personal accounts by people that they don’t know. This is also becoming more popular in news reporting as we manage data breaches and privacy online.
Richard Culatta, the CEO of ISTE (The International Society of Technology Education) reported in his recent book titled: ‘Raising for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World’ (Available at Randwick Library as an eBook and AudioBook) that there are five main qualities that children require to thrive in the online world:
- Be balanced: understand when and how much tech use is healthy;
- Stay informed: discern between true and false information;
- Be inclusive: treat others with respect and kindness online;
- Be engaged: use tech to strengthen family relationships and community connections;
- Stay alert: exercise caution and create safe digital spaces for others.
In his informative text, Culatta refutes the idea of keeping children away from technology to keep them safe and compares it to teaching children about road safety by keeping them inside, but we don’t let them in the car without a seatbelt.
School Programs
Online safety forms part of our PDHPE program and is taught each and every year. We follow a progression of knowledge as student’s awareness and online capabilities increase. At school, we use the terminology of being safe, respectful and responsible in our school expectations and these are echoed online. We try to make students aware of possible areas of attention as well as providing them the skills to display resilience and conscientiousness online. Of course, more information and education is needed and we feel that this is best when communicated at home as well as at school.
What You Can Do
So, in a world where it is hard to keep children away from technology and the skills of our students are expanding exponentially when using their devices, what can we do?
The best place to go and the first point of information when seeking help is the eSafety Commissioner; www.esafety.gov.au. The parent tab up the top is filled with information to help families set routines and expectations around the use of technology as well as a helpful guide to apps and games that kids are using with more information for you. There is also a helpful eSafety Parent Book to stay up to date with best practice.
You could possibly start by looking at 5 tips to keeping your family safe online.
For students in K-2, we highly recommend the Mighty Heroes series by the eSafety Commissioner which offers short videos looking at many of these concepts in a really engaging way.
Technology that can support us
Technology itself has progressed recently and offers parents new opportunities for supporting children online.
Google Families is a wonderful application which allows you to monitor your children’s use online if they have an android phone. Through the use of a Google Account, families can set screen limit times, talk about safety in posting and even keep track of student’s wearabouts.
If you are using an Apple phone Family Sharing on iPhone will allow you to monitor screen times and provide you a breakdown of which apps and programs your children are using.
If you would like to continue this conversation, please feel free to email Joshua Aghion (Innovation Coordinator K-6).
Year 6 Fun Day – A Huge Success
Last Friday, our Year 6 students hosted a highly successful Fun Day where they ran stalls that students from K-5 enjoyed throughout the day. Students in K-5 enjoyed face painting and hair sprays, ping pong, pick a duck, hit the cups, ball throwing, balance beam, obstacle courses and many more. The Fun Day raised $$3,943.00. We look forward to working with Year 6 to select a project for them to fund as a legacy.
It was great to see how well Year Six students worked together to make sure that all of the students had fun. Each student who participated in a game was eligible to win a raffle which was picked at the end of the day.
Thank you to the Year Six families who donated prizes as they were very well enjoyed and appreciated. Congratulations to Year Two who won the most amount of prizes.
End of Year Events
As the busy end of the year rolls around, I thought it would be helpful to remind you of the timing of the major, compulsory events coming up:
Aladdin Show 1
Sunday 20 November 2022 – 4.00 pm start.
Students who are not in the main cast are asked to be at school at 3.00 pm. The doors open at 3.45 pm.
Aladdin Show 2
Monday 21 November 2022 – 6.00 pm start.
Students who are not in the main cast are asked to be at school at 5.00 pm. The doors open at 5.45 pm.
Aladdin Show 3
Tuesday 22 November 2022 – 6.00 pm start .
Students who are not in the main cast are asked to be at school at 5.00 pm. The doors open at 5.45 pm.
Year 6 Pathways and Graduation
Wednesday 2 December 2022 – 8.10 am start.
Students are to arrive at 7.50 am and parents asked to be seated at 8.00 am.
Full school uniform to be worn by all Year 6 students.
K-2 Presentation Day
Wednesday 7 December 2022 – 8.45 am start.
Students arrive at school at the usual time in full school uniform. Please ensure long hair is tied back. School shoes are a part of this uniform and boys should wear a kippah.
Parents are invited to be seated at 8.30 am and the event will begin at 8.45 am.
3-6 Presentation Evening
Wednesday 7 December 2022 – 6.00 pm start.
Students arrive at school at 5.40 pm in full school uniform. Please ensure long hair is tied back. School shoes are a part of this uniform and boys should wear a kippah.
Parents are invited to be seated from 5.40 pm and the event will begin at 6.00 pm.
Natanya Milner – Head of Primary School
Aladdin Jnr
We are so excited for our Aladdin Jnr performances and look forward to seeing you all. Now that there has been some time for everyone to purchase tickets, we have lifted the number limit and you are welcome to increase your number of tickets per family. We understand that the evening performances can be tiring and we are therefore allowing a late start on Wednesday 23 November. Whilst children are welcome to arrive at the usual time, we ask that all students are on campus by recess at 10.50 am.
I am aware that the seating is not allocated and therefore there will be some possible pressure to enter the room. I am hoping we can all be respectful of each other and the staff at this time. The doors will not open until 15 minutes before showtime. Approximately 20 minutes before the start time, we will ask guests to line up at the doors with their tickets ready to be shown to staff.
We are so pleased to announce that the canteen will be open before the show so you will be able to enjoy Yaffa and Ariel’s delicious food!
Last Minute Hat Purchasing
As summer approaches, we have become vigilant about hat wearing. We are particularly concerned about students in Years 4-6 who do not have hats for Thursday afternoon sport. I have recently organised for a small number of hats to be on campus so that parents can pay for these and the child can have the hat immediately. Please note that we will not be contacting parents for this to happen, but you are welcome to contact us on eatoprimary@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au. We only have a small number and will monitor the supply, but it may be that they could run out and take us a few days to restock.